Part of the reason why the Star Wars prequels didn’t work, was because of all the teenage drama that was going on at the time. So when Disney acquired the rights to LucasFilm, and George Lucas had announced that he would be retiring from the franchise, there was a small sigh of relief. The director admitted that Disney had scrapped his ideas for the sequel, but those ideas were somewhat of a secret.

The recent Vanity Fair issue revealed some interesting tidbits about the upcoming film. In it we learn why Disney decided to go with a script written by director J.J. Abrams and co-writer Lawrence Kasdan, and that Michael Arndt‘s draft was never completed.

Now George Lucas‘s reaction to seeing the Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer is starting to make a bit more sense. Recently the Star Wars creator confirmed that he was working on a new set of sequels before he sold the rights to Disney. In addition to transferring ownership of Star Wars, Lucas also gave his ideas and plot outlines for future sequels.

Lucas has had a hand in the stories for all of the Star Wars films, but The Force Awakens will be the first film that is not based on Lucas’s ideas. At first Michael Arndt was hired to write a draft, based on those initial ideas, before the sale was made. The script would put greater focus on the new characters that would be introduced in the film, with the characters from the original trilogy acting as secondary characters. However, he was suddenly taken off the project, and director J.J. Abrams took over writing the script with Lawrence Kasdan. Hit the jump for more.

Man, there must really be something to all this Star Wars: Episode VII business. Seems like every day casting rumors hit the web with greater fanfare than the announcement of a new pope.

Just a few days ago it was revealed that Breaking Bad and Friday Night Lights actor Jesse Plemons was among the latest performers to try out for the cast of J.J. Abrams‘ continuation of George Lucas‘ epic space fantasy franchise. Today adds a few more interesting names to the Episode VII mix, namely Adam Driver (Girls), Hugo Weaving (Cloud Atlas), and star-on-the-rise Michael Fassbender.

Despite having my love for all things Star Wars reduced dramatically to the status of a favorite childhood toy I needed sorrily to let go, I am holding out a little hope for Star Wars: Episode VII. J.J. Abrams is a solid director of expansive widescreen excitement and his movies tend to be pretty damn great when the crucial elements are in place. The project’s first writer Michael Arndt was eventually usurped by Lawrence Kasdan, but as Kasdan was widely credited with making the script for The Empire Strikes Back a winner (original scribe Leigh Brackett had a hand in its success too), this news was greeted by the franchise’s die hard fans with jubilation.

In addition to excessive CGI and lifeless performances from an otherwise talented cast, the much-loathed – yet still hugely profitable – prequel trilogy suffered from George Lucas’ deplorable writing. If Abrams’ continued exploration of a galaxy far, far away on the big screen is to be a success at least creatively it’s vital for the screenplay to be in place prior to the start of filming.

In a bit of an interesting twist, it’s being reported that Oscar-winning Toy Story 3 and Little Miss Sunshine screenwriter Michael Arndt is no longer working on the script for Star Wars: Episode VII.

Instead the movie is now being written by J.J. Abrams, who is also directing, and Lawrence Kasdan, who previously worked on the scripts for The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and who was brought in as a consultant and to possibly write other planned installments in the franchise not long after Arndt was initially hired.

Continue below to read the full announcement, include a rundown of who’s working on the movie so far and their previous credits.